Date: Fri, 17 Nov 2000 12:57:44 -0500
From: Kathrine <storykath@operamail.com>
Subject: Eternally Yours, part eleven

Legal disclaimer: fiction, not true. If you are underage don't read.

Author's note: I'm going out of town this the weekend...work can be a bitch at
times...so I thought I get this out first. Hope you like, more to come very
soon. Have a fab weekend all.

Special thanks to Michie, just for being my friend and my partner in
crime...ahm, I mean writing... :) You rock, girl, see you Sunday.
Love and looneytunes from Kat.

- Chapter Eleven -

As Chris returned to the car, Carrie held the door open for him. "Come on,
we're leaving this place." "I'm not going to argue with you there," Chris
mumbled and got into the car. Hurrying over to the other side of the car,
Carrie got in and started the engine. "The nerve of those people!" she said
angrily.

Chris leaned back in his seat, "What did they say?" Carrie looked at him.
"Chris, are you ok? I mean, it must have been a terrible shock for you to see
Dacos like that. He looks exactly like..." "Please," Chris said, holding up
his hand. "Don't. I... I just can't handle that right now." "You're going to
have to talk about it someday," Carrie said softly. "I'll talk," Chris said,
looking out of his window. "Just not now..."

Carrie let it be with that. The drive back to the town was silent for the
most, both persons in the car had a lot on their minds. Suddenly Chris sat up
a little. "Where are you going? I thought you were going to drive me back to
my place? "I am, " Carrie answered, "after we stop at a restaurant to get
something to eat." "I'm not hungry," Chris protested. His words made Carrie
turn her head to him. "I'm stopping at this restaurant and you will eat,
Christopher. Have you eaten anything at all today?" His silence was all the
answer she needed.

They stopped at a place not far from Chris' appartement. It was a small
dinner, near the highway. "This place has the best breakfast serving," Carrie
commented. "I'm really not hungry, Car," Chris tried again. All he felt like
at the moment was to get home, pull the bed covers over his head and forget
that there was a world out there. "You can go home and sulk right after we
have eaten," Carrie told him. "Come on, kid, I'll even buy you one of those
God-awful Mars bars you're so fond of." "I'm not a kid," Chris growled, but he
got out of the car.

A couple of trailer trucks was parked outside the diner too. As they entered,
a big, burly man, wearing baggy jeans, a too small T-shirt and a caps saying
"We do it best!" on, swung his arm around Carrie's waist. "Now here's a pretty
thing!" he bellowed, hugging Carrie tightly. His Scottish accent was seeping
through in every syllable. "Stay with me, lass, and you'll make old Tom the
happiest man alive!" Carefully freeing herself from the death grip, Carrie
stepped back. "As tempting as that may sound, Tom, I have to decline.
I already have a man to watch over." The man looked at her with a sad face.
"Make sure he takes good care of you then, lass. Here, I want you to have this
as a reminder of old Tom..." The caps was pressed down on Carrie's red-blonde
curls. "You still are a pretty little thing," Tom said and winked at her. Then
he left the diner to the other driver's whistles and calls.

Slowly Carrie removed the caps, and placed it on a table by the window. "Don't
say a word," she warned Chris who was doubled over in laughter.
"I wasn't going to say anything!" Chris squeaked, "but you shouldn't have
taken off the hat, it looked soooo good on you!" "You be careful now, young
man!" Carrie said, trying to keep a serious face. She failed terribly, which
caused Chris to laugh even more.

"Sit down," she said in the end. Chris sobered up and sat down, wiping tears
of laughter off his cheeks. A waitress came over to their table, and Carrie
placed their orders. The young waitress kept her eyes on Chris, obviously
trying to determine what his relationship with Carrie was. As she left to
place their orders to the cook, Carrie couldn't resist teasing Chris a little.
"She was a nice girl, wasn't she? Just what you need, to get you in a better
mood, Christopher." The shimmer in Chris' dark brown eyes matched her own.
"What I could use to cheer me up is a 6'2" hunk with a body to die for,
preferably blond," he answered matter of factly. "I don't care if he's as dumb
as a stick, as long as he's built." "Christopher!" Carrie said, shaking her
head. "There is a life outside bed too, you know." This time she was laughing
as Chris looked at her with wide eyes in mock surprise. "There is???"

The waitress came back, placing their orders in front of them. "Enjoy!" she
said, giving Chris a wink. "let me know if you need anything. The name's
Mandy." "Thanks, Mandy," Chris said, smiling. She smiled back. "If you need
anything at all, just give me a call." "We will," Chris assured her.
"She likes you," Carrie said as they started eating. "I'd probably like her
too," Chris answered, playing with his fork. "If I was straight. Which I'm
not. And if you remember, I'm not exactly lucky when it comes to love."

"That is in the past now," Carrie said, seeing the sadness that darkened
Chris' eyes. "You will find someone, Christopher." "What if I do?", Chris
answered. "I'm still not supposed to make a commitment to anybody. A slayer is
to concentrate on his mission, that's it." Carrie knew Chris was being serious
for once, and placed her answer carefully. "There are slayers that have
broken, or stepped aside, that rule, Christopher. I think there are worse
rules to break." "I have broken them all," Chris said, the sadness slipping
away. "So I guess they're used to me by now." "They probably are," Carrie had
to admit, happy to see the sad look in Chris' eyes gone for the time being.

An hour later, Chris was back in his flat. "Are you sure you are ok?" Carrie
asked, studying him closely. "I'm fine, Car!" Chris told her. "Right now all I
feel like is closing my eyes and catch up on some sleep." "You do that," she
answered. "And be careful tonight." "I always am!" Chris answered. "No, you're
not," Carrie said. "Watch yourself, ok, sometimes I worry about you."
"I'll be careful," Chris said. "Cross my heart, you know I don't do anything
stupid when I'm patroling." "No, not any more," Carrie thought. "At least not
as much as you used to." After telling him once again to be careful, she left,
still unable to get rid of the feeling that the future held something bad in
store, for the both of them.

Chris checked his watch. He should be able to get a couple of hours sleep
before the sun went down. Not even bothering to undress, he curled up on the
bed, falling asleep in an instant.

**********

"Wake up" a voice said. It had rose in volume and intensity for quite a while
now, but JC didn't feel like waking up yet. Not while Joey was snuggled up
tightly to him and JC had his arms wrapped around him, and could feel the
warmth of Joey's deep breaths tickling his neck. But Justin was nothing if not
persistent, so after five minutes JC reluctantly opened his eyes. "At last!"
Justin said, sitting indian-style at the bottom of the bed.

"You're annoying, you know that, Justin." JC growled and tried to sit up some.
Then he realised that he was naked and found it wiser to stay under the
covers. "I know," Justin answered. "And I want to go out. So get out of bed."
Next to JC, Joey moved a little. "Honey, why am I hearing Justin?" he said
without opening his eyes. "Because he's sitting in our bed, sweetheart," JC
answered, smiling. "Doesn't he have a bed of his own?" Joey continued as he
wrapped his arms around JC's waist and rested his head on his lover's stomach.

"I have a bed of my own!" Justin said, "but I don't want to sleep. I want to
go out. And you two are no fun." That made Joey open his eyes. "Hey, we're a
lot of fun." "No, you're not." Joey turned to JC, "darling, are we boring?"
"No," JC answered, "far from it... Joey!" That last statement came after
Joey's hand had started trailing a little lower than JC's stomach. "We have
company!"

"Justin, go wake Lance," Joey then said. "And take your time. We'll be out in
fifteen minutes." "Twenty minutes," JC corrected him. "Twenty minutes," Joey
agreed and planted a kiss on JC's stomach, making him giggle. "Joey, that
tickles!" Sighing very deeply Justin got out of the bed and throtted out the
door. "Well, I might as well do as Joey said," he thought. A couple of seconds
he was standing in front of the door to Lance's room.

Quietly Justin opened the door and slipped inside. The room was dark, and as
far as Justin could see Lance was still sleeping. Justin tiptoed over to the
bed and climbed in. Sitting at the bottom of the bed he studied the sleeping
blonde. He was laying curled up in the middle of the bed, the bed covers
tangled around his arms and legs. Lance's face was peaceful and calm, like a
sculpted mask, the image only broken by his breathing. The vampiric sleep was
always deep, and for the most dreamless.

As Justin sat on the bed, watching Lance, the sun went down, making the room
grow even darker. This was Justin's favourite time of the night, as the sun
had just given way to the darkness. And them. He was wondering if he should
wake Lance, but knew that the other would soon wake up now that sun had
settled. So he sat back, and watched, and waited for Lance to wake up.

Deep in his sleep, Lance sensed that the sun had gone down. Waking up was a
slow process, after being left immobile and almost in a coma-like state, the
body needed time to start up properly. Yawning a little, Lance turned and
stretched. He had to struggle some to get free from the bed covers, but in the
end he could push them away. Sleepily he opened his eyes. And almost jumped
out of the bed as he saw the figure sitting on it. "Jesus, Justin!" Lance
breathed as he saw who his guest was. "Are you trying to give me a heart
attack?" "You can't have a heart attack," Justin answered calmly.

"I was speaking methaforically," Lance mumbled, reaching for the covers again.
He wasn't all comfortable wearing only his boxers around Justin.
"You still can't have a heart attack," Justin pointed out, "and I can't scare
you to death either." "Thanks for the information," Lance answered, looking at
the curlyhaired vampire in his bed. "What are you doing here anyway?"
"Joey and JC are having sex, so they told me to go bug you instead." "They're
having...?" Lance still hadn't gotten quite used to Justin's forward way of
speaking. "Sex," Justin helped him. "Oh," Lance said. A thin blush crept onto
his face. "Don't even think of it," he admonished himself. Instead he focused
on Justin.

"Are you cold?" he asked as he saw Justin hugh his knees tightly to his chest.
"We can't get cold," Justin told him. "We can feel heat, but we can't get
cold." "What are you, some kind of vampire encyclopedia?" Lance wondered.
"No," Justin shrugged, "it's just you that are ignorant." "So do you want to
share the blanket?" Lance asked, pretending not to hear what Justin said. "Of
course," Justin answered, putting his feet in under the blanket. "Thought so,"
Lance answered him.

When they both were tucked up comfortably, Justin looked around. "What are you
going to do with the room?" "I'm going to get rid of those curtains first of
all," Lance answered, leaning back into a thick pillow. "I think they are the
ugliest thing I've ever seen." He had made Justin laugh. "I think so too."
Lance had to laugh too. "Otherwise I think I keep it like it is. At first I
thought the colours were too dark, but they aren't. They fit the room," Lance
said, studying the room around him  "And me," he added in his thoughts. "It's
nice," Justin agreed. "But I think I would get lost in this bed." "Really?"
Lance sat up a little and looked curiously at Justin. "I love this bed, it's
looks cool and has lotsa room." "Too much room," Justin answered and
schrunched up his nose. "I wouldn't know where to put my head."

Lance tried to hide his laughter with a snort. "There is only one place to put
your head." "No, there isn't," Justin answered innocently. "No?" Lance asked,
"are we even talking about the same thing here, curly?" Justin proceeded to
point to the corner of the bed. "You can put your head there, and there..." He
pointed to another corner. "Or at the end of the bed. Most places, really."
While looking at Lance with the most innocent crystal blue eyes, Justin asked:
"What did you think I meant?" The answer was a pillow hitting him in the face.

That was a challenge Justin couldn't refuse and he threw the pillow back.
The next minutes they were both rolling around on the bed, trying to hit each
other with pillows. In the end they were too out of breath and laughing too
much to keep it up, so they collapsed in a giggling heap on the bed.
"It seems like the two of you finally are getting along," a voice said from
the doorway. Lance and Justin looked up to see JC and Joey looking back at
them and smiling. "You all done now?" Justin asked, turning to his stomach.
"All done,"Joey answered. "For now. We even had time for an encore."

"Mmm," JC answered, hugging his lover, "yeah." Joey lowered his head to kiss
JC's neck. Then he looked at the two in the bed again. "Go get ready, we'll go
out soon." "Ok," Justin answered, getting to his feet. Lance followed his
example. "I'm gonna go hit the shower," he said. "Me too," Justin announced
and left for his own room. JC looked at Joey. "Let's go, babe." "Where?" Joey
answered. JC smiled. "We haven't taken our shower yet, silly." The smile on
Joey's face set his heart racing as always. "How could I forget?" he answered,
this time kissing JC's ear. "I'll race you to the bathroom."